Annual reporting by an Australian government department: a critical longitudinal study of accounting and organisational change

The period from the Second World War through to the present has heralded change and reform in the Australian public sector, and the sector in other nations, in terms of models, modes and methods of administration and service delivery. While these changes have had significant flow-on effects for the annual reporting behaviours of Australian government departments, the literature has provided few accounts of this movement in terms of the format and content of annual reports, and a lack of piquant explanations for change that are embedded within societal, political and economic contexts. The purpose of this historical study is to identify and critically interpret changes to the annual reports of the Department of Social Services/Security by examining the layout and inclusions of selected, key reports from the 1940s through to the early 1990s, applying Lukac's (1971) Marxian concept of reification.